John Kenneth Cobb (born 11 February 1950) is a former Australian politician who served as a National Party member of the

Australian House of Representatives The House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Parliament of Australia, the upper house being the Senate. Its composition and powers are established in Chapter I of the Constitution of Australia. The term of members of the ...

from November 2001 representing the Division of Parkes, and the Division of Calare from 2007 to 2016 when he retired.

Early life and education

Cobb was born in Bathurst, son of Lee and Mary Cobb, and was raised on the family property near

Mount Hope, New South Wales Mount Hope (elevation 223 m) is a settlement in western New South Wales, Australia. It is situated on the Kidman Way, 95 kilometres north of Hillston and 160 km south of Cobar. A government township called 'Nombinnie' was surveyed in the m ...

Career

Pre-political career

From the 1980s until his candidacy for Federal Parliament, Cobb was active in, and spent three years as president of the New South Wales Farmers Association, a lobby group representing farmers and rural and regional communities. He also continued to farm the family property.

Political career

Cobb was elected to the House of Representatives from the Division of Parkes, a safe National Party seat, at the 2001 federal election. In July 2005, Cobb was appointed to the ministry as Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, but soon after was reshuffled to the community services portfolio. After Parkes was dramatically altered in a redistribution, Cobb ran for the neighbouring seat of

Calare The Division of Calare is an Australian electoral division in the state of New South Wales. Geography Since 1984, federal electoral division boundaries in Australia have been determined at redistributions by a redistribution committee appointe ...

at the 2007 election after the popular independent member

Peter Andren Peter James Andren AM (28 August 1946 – 3 November 2007) was an Australian politician. He was an independent member of the Australian House of Representatives from March 1996 until October 2007, representing the electorate of Calare, New Sou ...

retired. The Liberal-National Party Coalition lost the election, but Cobb won Calare handily. He was chosen by new Opposition leader

Brendan Nelson Brendan John Nelson (born 19 August 1958) is a business leader and former Australian politician. He served as the federal Leader of the Opposition from 2007 to 2008, going on to serve as Australia's senior diplomat to the European Union and NA ...

to be a member of the shadow ministry, as the spokesperson on regional development and water security. He was re-elected at the 2010 election and in September 2010 was appointed Shadow Minister for Agriculture and Food Security by Opposition leader, Tony Abbott. Following the 2013 federal election, Cobb nominated as deputy leader of the National Party, but was defeated by

Barnaby Joyce Barnaby Thomas Gerard Joyce (born 17 April 1967) is an Australian politician who served as the 17th deputy prime minister of Australia under Malcolm Turnbull from 2016 to 2018 and under Scott Morrison from 2021 to 2022. He was the leader of the ...

, the newly elected member of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. Cobb was not appointed to the Abbott Ministry. On 27 February 2016, Cobb announced that he was

retiring Retirement is the withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from one's active working life. A person may also semi-retire by reducing work hours or workload. Many people choose to retire when they are elderly or incapable of doing their j ...

from politics and would not re-contest the Division of Calare in the

2016 Australian federal election The 2016 Australian federal election was a double dissolution election held on Saturday 2 July to elect all 226 members of the 45th Parliament of Australia, 45th Parliament of Australia, after an extended eight-week official campaign period. It ...

Personal life

Cobb in married and has four daughters from his first marriage. He is not related to one of his predecessors as the member for Parkes,

Michael Cobb Michael Roy Cobb (born 16 March 1945) is an Australian politician who represented the electorate of Parkes in the Australian House of Representatives from 1984 to 1998. Before entering politics Cobb worked as a veterinary surgeon and ran a fa ...

References

External links

*Parliament of Australia
Hon. John Cobb MP
official Parliament website biography, retrieved January 2008 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cobb, John 1950 births Living people National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of Australia Australian monarchists Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Parkes Members of the Australian House of Representatives for Calare Members of the Australian House of Representatives 21st-century Australian politicians Government ministers of Australia